Iran Acknowledges Hack Of Oil Ministry

The Iranian Oil Ministry has acknowledged that a virus outbreak has compromised servers and Web sites used by the Ministry, but denies that any non-public data was exposed.

The notice, which was posted on the Web site for the Oil Ministry on Monday, quotes a Ministry of Petroleum spokesman as saying Ministry was well defended against cyber attacks and that Ministry data was “not damaged in the attack,” which affected “user information” only and damaged hard disks on infected systems.

The attack comes amid heightened tensions between the West and Iran over that country’s nuclear ambitions. Smarting under international economic sanctions and fearing a military strike by the U.S. or its allies designed to degrade its nuclear enrichment facilities, the Islamic Republic has threatened to cut off the Straight of Hormuz, a key conduit for oil exports from the Gulf. In response, the U.S. has moved two aircraft carrier groups to the Gulf and promised to keep the straight opened to traffic.

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